Teachers Share their Experiences While Living Abroad!

Lately, I stumbled upon a very lucky find. A fitness center near my work had a small fire not long ago. Nothing serious, but enough of a cause to close down and do a partial remodel. Sounds terrible. But the point is they had to remodel, and this disrupted their business. Get where I am going with this now? Discounts!

Cat cafes. Dog cafes. Domestic animal cafes are pretty well-known by now. I’ve had many friends from the US ask me about dog and cat cafes. I have a dog cafe near my home - a 5 minute walk away. Sure, they are adorable and nice to pet, but many people already have them as pets at home. What is far more exciting are raccoon cafes. I don’t know any friend that has a raccoon as a pet!

If you are moving to Korea, there are many things you have to experience before leaving. Call it the English Teacher in Korea Bucket List. Obviously there are things like the Boryeong Mud Festival, trips to Busan, the Korean War Museum, the DMZ, and maybe a quick expedition to China or Japan, but there are other important must-do's that are far more convenient. What I did today is definitely on the English Teacher in Korea Bucket List and that was a trip to a Jjimjilbang! You can take a look at what they say on Wikipedia, but I would just describe it as a traditional Korean Bath House.

Finally, everyone on the Korean peninsula breathes a sigh of relief: rainy season is over. However, the relief is short lived because with the end of the rain comes the real summer heat. Having grown up in Oklahoma and lived in Texas, I'm no stranger to stifling, humid, triple digit (Fahrenheit, of course) temperatures. The heat in Korea is not quite as intense, but it's still a humid heat, which makes staying inside as much as possible very appealing. But you live in Korea! You don't want to waste your weekends away hiding in the air conditioning! So here are some tips on what you can do to enjoy Korea this summer and still stay cool.

As someone who grew up in a landlocked state nearly smack in the middle of the U.S., traveling to another state was normal. But going to another country? Too far and too expensive. In fact, while I've traveled all over the U.S., moving to Korea was the first time I'd ever left my home country. Now that I'm here, the novelty of being able to easily country-hop is still so amazing to me. I can't even count the hours I've spent planning the trips I'll be taking someday. Lucky for you, in all of my planning, I've amassed a huge amount of resources. So get ready to bookmark websites, because it's about to get real with a whole lot of information.

Summer is here! At Chungdahm, we are working hard by teaching additional summer intensive courses, but smack in the middle I get a week's vacation. As I was pondering how to spend this vacation I found a great trip through Facebook and a pretty popular travel group, Enjoy Korea. They provide both Day trips and Weekend trips for English speakers living in Korea. They're a licensed travel company who work with some of the main ski resorts in Korea and other businesses to provide some awesome trips at amazing prices. For my weekend getaway, I only spent 30,000 won, which is around $30.

When I was thinking about first applying to teach English in Korea, I made a list of all the amazing things Korea had to offer, and of course food was on top of that list. I did not realise, however, that some of my favourites would be from a fast foot type place or Orange place as they are called here in Korea, (by us foreigners at least).

Right now, Korea is smack in the middle of the infamous monsoon season. While it can make walking to work a little less than pleasant, you can’t let it hamper your free time, especially your weekends. Since the out of doors is particularly damp, hot, and muggy, finding indoors activities is a top priority. Luckily, Seoul has a wide range of things to keep you both dry and busy. You can go the normal route like museums and movies, or you can track down some of the more unusual activities. This weekend’s diversion? The Mustoy Café in Seoul...